Herzen, Alexander Ivanovich
Herzen, Alexander Ivanovich ( 1812 – 70 ),leading Russian revolutionary thinker, born in Moscow, the son of a wealthy Russian nobleman. His early involvement in radical politics led to two periods of exile in Russia. He emigrated to the West in 1847 , at first to Italy, France, and Switzerland, and to London in 1852 . The Romantic and idealist philosophy of Goethe and Schelling and the French utopian socialism of Proudhon were early influences on Herzen's thought. However, the failure of the revolutions of 1848 and the tragedies and turbulence of his private life deeply affected his political outlook. His disillusionment (described in From the Other Shore, 1850 ) led him to embrace a more nationalistic and agrarian kind of socialism. In London he established the first Free Russian Press ( 1853 ) and in 1857 , with Ogarev, published two journals, the Polar Star and the Bell, which...
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